Sinn Féin heralds ‘significant progress’ in Northern Ireland protocol talks with Sunak – UK politics live

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The foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said he has had a “constructive meeting” with The European Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič on the Northern Ireland protocol.

After their talks in Brussels, Cleverly tweeted:

We discussed the work ongoing between the UK and EU to find a solution on the NI Protocol. Intensive work continues.

Šefčovič said there had been “constructive engagement” and that “good progress” had been made.

“The shared objective clear: joint solutions, responding to the everyday concerns of people in NI. Hard work continues,” he tweeted.

The brutality of political life had taken its toll on her, said Nicola Sturgeon as she announced her resignation on Wednesday. That same day, a 42-year-old man was jailed for sending her an email saying she was going to “face a hanging” for treason. Two weeks earlier, a 70-year-old man was found guilty of threatening to assassinate her.

It may come as no surprise, then, that Scotland’s former first minister recently described the environment for women in politics as “much harsher and more hostile” than at any time in her decades-long career.

“Social media provides a vehicle for the most awful abuse of women, misogyny, sexism and threats of violence for women who put their heads above the parapet,” Sturgeon, 52, told the BBC’s Kirsty Wark in a documentary that will air on Tuesday.

This vitriol has left female politicians fearing for their safety. Caroline Nokes, the Conservative chair of parliament’s women and equalities committee, said she had reported death threats to the police. “The worst was from a bloke who said he wanted to rape and torture me until I was dead,” she said.

Parenting classes would be given to people whose children repeatedly commit antisocial behaviour if Labour wins power.

Shadow justice secretary Steve Reed made the announcement as he gave a speech on the rule of law and crime at Middle Temple in central London, PA Media reported.

Reed said Labour will help parents “take responsibility for tackling the behaviour of their own children if they repeatedly commit crime”.

He told the legal society:

We will expand the use of parenting orders, so the courts can require parents of persistent young offenders to attend parenting classes.

We will support parents to steer their children’s lives back on track before the crime in a young life becomes a life of crime.

Antisocial behaviour will be met with consequences, because we know how damaging it is for communities that feel powerless in the face of it.

Speaking to reporters after his speech, Reed noted “the important point is that if you are a parent and your kid is repeatedly committing antisocial behaviour or low-level offending, you need first of all to take responsibility as a parent for the behaviour of your kids, but you may also need support and help to get control of them”.

He said there are parents in his constituency who are “genuinely at their wits’ end because they don’t know how to get back control of their kids”, adding that their fear is that “this low-level offending” might lead onto “more serious offending later in life”.

Thousands more ambulance workers have voted to strike in the long-running dispute over pay and staffing.

Unison said the growing NHS dispute will now cover ambulance services and other NHS organisations across most parts of England, PA Media reports.

Announcing re-ballot results of thousands more health workers, Unison said staff at another four English ambulance services and five NHS organisations, including NHS Blood and Transplant, will now be able to strike in a “significant escalation” of the dispute.

The union said ambulance staff at four services in England: South Central, East of England, West Midlands and East Midlands; had voted to take industrial action.

They’ve been joined today by health workers at: NHS Blood and Transplant; Great Ormond Street hospital; the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust; Liverpool Women’s Hospital; and the Bridgewater Community Trust.

The 12,000 staff involved in the re-ballots can now take part in the ongoing dispute alongside their NHS colleagues at ambulance services in London, Yorkshire, the North East, North West and South West.

Since the dispute over pay and staffing began in December, staff at these service have taken strike action on four occasions.

EU officials believe Northern Ireland protocol deal with UK is close

EU officials believe a deal with the British government over the Northern Ireland protocol is close to being done, as talks continue in Brussels.

The foreign secretary, James Cleverly, began a meeting with the EU official in charge of Brexit, Maroš Šefčovič at around 11.30am local time in Brussels, in a sign that talks have entered the final stretch.

The EU is understood to have conceded ground on the issue of customs checks on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. The UK had proposed a system of red and green lanes for lorries that would allow goods in the latter category to avoid customs declarations.

EU officials believe a compromise with lighter checks is possible, because the UK has now agreed to share real-time customs data to track the movement of goods.

The role of the European court of justice in policing the Northern Ireland agreement will remain, but there will be more layers of arbitration before disputes are referred to Luxembourg. Currently, the first port of call for disputes is a UK-EU “specialised committee”, but there will be additional fora for airing disputes about the protocol, before going to the European court.

EU sources expect Rishi Sunak to announce a deal on Tuesday, but remain unsure whether he can sell the deal to his Eurosceptic backbenchers and the DUP. “With the UK, you never know,” said an official. “We should hope [there is a deal] because I don’t see anyone else who is capable of doing it.”

“The question is, to what extent can [Sunak] convince his party members that there is enough meat for them to accept - to what in their eyes will always be a sub optimal deal.”

Labour will help Sunak get protocol deal through parliament, says shadow justice secretary

Labour will offer Rishi Sunak the additional votes he needs to get a Northern Ireland Protocol deal through parliament, the shadow justice secretary has said.

Steve Reed told reporters:

We’ll wait and see what the government is coming forward with. It’s very important for everybody in the United Kingdom that this problem is resolved. It’s a problem that is of this government’s own making, of course.

He added:

Labour wants this problem fixed, so we are prepared to give Rishi Sunak the additional votes he needs to get this through parliament and it’s important that the prime minister works with the Labour party rather than listen to the extremists in his own ranks who do not want to resolve this problem that has caused a division inside our United Kingdom.

On the Bill of Rights, Reed warned:

We have got the prime minister today in Northern Ireland, we hope with a deal to resolve the issues around the Northern Ireland Protocol.

What we do not want to happen is that that selfsame prime minister then rips up the Human Rights Act, which underpins the Good Friday Agreement, because if he puts peace in Northern Ireland in peril in that way that is an act of unforgivable irresponsibility for which you would never be forgiven.

Liz Truss has used her first overseas since resigning as Britain’s prime minister to call on the west to safeguard Taiwan’s security and economy in the face of Chinese aggression “before it’s too late”.

Speaking in Tokyo at a meeting of mainly conservative politicians, Truss said Britain had been naive to court the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, in 2015.

She said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine should serve as a warning of what happens when democracies fail to stand up to authoritarian regimes.

Swinney rules himself out of SNP contest to replace Sturgeon

John Swinney, Scotland’s deputy first minister and one of the SNP’s longest-serving senior figures, has called for the party to unite and focus on concerns of mainstream voters as he ruled himself out of the contest to replace Nicola Sturgeon.

Swinney, who is widely respected amongst the membership and was SNP leader 20 years ago, said the party needed “a fresh perspective” after Sturgeon’s shock resignation on Wednesday.

Encouraging leadership candidates to “anchor the SNP in the mainstream of Scottish politics”, he told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good morning Scotland: “We’ve got to keep ourselves very, very close to the priorities and the issues that matter to people in Scotland. Independence cannot be some abstract concept.”

Asked about the divisions within the party caused by recent gender recognition reforms – which have been blocked by the UK government – Swinney said unity was “absolutely critical”, adding “when the party has been united, we’ve actually achieved phenomenal results for our party and for the people of Scotland”.

But he added he had “no regrets” that the legislation had passed. He said: “It’s important that we address the concerns of communities within our country who are marginalised, who are isolated, and to face very significant challenges”.

Following a meeting of the party’s NEC on Thursday night, candidates will have until next Friday to put their names forward. A six-week contest will follow, with ballots of 100,000-plus membership members closing on 27 March.

The NEC also announced that a special party conference in March, where members would vote on Sturgeon’s de facto referendum plan after the supreme court ruled that Holyrood did not have the powers to run another independence vote without Westminster’s consent, would be postponed.

Sinn Féin herald 'significant progress' after NI protocol talks with Sunak

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald said that indications of progress on the Northern Ireland Protocol was heartening.

“It’s clear now that significant progress has been made and we’re very heartened by that,” she said after meeting with UK prime minister Rishi Sunak.

She added:

We now want to see a speedy conclusion of matters and, above all else, we want to see the institutions restored, government restored here in the north.

The bottom line is that we have to ensure that any deal provides for ongoing access to the European single market, no hardening of the border on the island of Ireland and a protection of the Good Friday Agreement in all of its parts.

Those are the core elements and aspects that need to be protected. But it seems to us that it’s very much game on.

We’re very heartened by that, we’re very conscious that a deal can be done, should now be concluded speedily, we hope that that will be the case. Then it’s a matter for everyone, for each of the political parties to step up, get back to work and deliver for people here.

She also said:

I think we’ve all seen in recent weeks certainly an upping of the pace of political engagement and activity. That, to our mind, is a very, very positive thing. It’s absolutely necessary that there is intensive goodwill, good faith work done between the parties.

Truss urges west to safeguard Taiwan security ‘before it’s too late’

Liz Truss has used her first overseas speech since resigning as British prime minister to call on the west to safeguard Taiwan’s security and economy in the face of Chinese aggression “before it is too late”.

Speaking in Tokyo at a meeting of mainly conservative lawmakers that included the former Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, Truss said Britain had been naive to court the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, in 2015, adding that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine should serve as a warning of what happens when democracies fail to stand up to authoritarian regimes.

Truss told a meeting organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China that the G7 and other democracies should urgently agree a package of coordinated defence, economic and political measures in support of Taiwan.

“Our governments must signal to [China] that military aggression towards Taiwan would be a strategic mistake,” said Truss, who is Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister, having spent just 44 days in office when she resigned last October. “When it comes to China, a failure to act now could cost us dearly in the long run.”

Her keynote speech is being seen as an attempt to rebuild her political reputation, but also to add to pressure on her successor, Rishi Sunak, to take a stronger stance against Beijing.

Tory former health minister Lord Bethell said NHS pay disputes need to be sorted “quickly”.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, and asked if he is calling for the government and the Conservatives to engage in talks, he said:

Yes, I think … I am really worried that the government hasn’t got a positive attitude on this …

There is a workforce plan in place that needs to be (acted) on, they need to start preparing today for next winter.

He added:

From a political point of view there is an election to be fought in 20 months’ time or whenever it is going to be. I am worried that if this isn’t put away then politically the government will have created a big problem for itself.

I’m not in the room to make those discussions. I do acknowledge that there are enormous pressures on public finances.

Nurses union leader warns strike action will have 'significant impact' on NHS

Royal College of Nursing (RCN) general secretary Pat Cullen has said she has not spoken with the health and social care secretary for more than a month.

Cullen told BBC Breakfast there has been “no communication” with Steve Barclay during that time.

She went on:

I’m deeply disappointed that I go back every moment of the day to the 320,000 nurses who took part in this ballot for strike action and say to them that I have no news for them.

That I can’t give them any outcome so that they can get back to looking after their patients, so that they can get a decent wage and remain within the health service. It is devastating for those nurses actually.

She added:

We are not going to do anything that will place further risk on our patients.

The risk that those patients are feeling every single day by being denied treatment because of the nurse vacancies, not being able to get off those waiting lists.

We’re working night and day with NHS leaders, but we can also see NHS leaders stepping in and writing to the prime minister.

There’s no doubt there will be a significant impact and we are now urging the prime minister to step in with 12 days to try and resolve this, around a round table today.

Sunak in 'listening mode' as talks with Stormont leaders begin

Alliance party leader Naomi Long has said that UK prime minister Rishi Sunak is in “listening mode” and that there is “some heavy lifting still to be done” to secure a deal on the Northern Ireland protocol.

Speaking after engaging with Sunak at a hotel on the outskirts of Belfast, she said it was “a very constructive and very positive meeting”.

She added:

He was very much in listening mode and keen to hear our views. It seems apparent that while he was not in a position to brief us about the details, that things are gradually moving in the direction of a potential deal.

But we are not over the line yet. That doesn’t mean that we won’t be very soon, but there’s clearly some heavy lifting still to be done.

Alliance party leader Naomi Long speaks to the media outside Culloden Hotel in Belfast, where Rishi Sunak is holding talks with Stormont leaders over the Northern Ireland Protocol. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said “this is an important moment for our politics here” while on his way in to talks with British prime minister Rishi Sunak.

“Hopefully we’re getting very close to a deal,” he told reporters, adding:

I spoke to the taoiseach [Leo Varadkar] last night, I don’t think this is totally done and dusted yet but it’s nearly there.

We’re coming very close to the time where people have to decide whether or not they’re going to take ‘yes’ for an answer.

I think most of the issues that the DUP have put on the table will be resolved, and we all know in every negotiation you don’t get everything you want.

DUP warns Sunak not to leave Northern Ireland ‘abandoned to EU’

Good morning. Prime minister Rishi Sunak is holding talks with Stormont leaders as speculation mounts that a deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol could be close.

But the DUP has warned Sunak that the party will not return to power sharing if he leaves Northern Ireland “abandoned to the EU” under any new deal he has cut with Brussels over the Brexit trading arrangements for the region.

Sammy Wilson, the MP for East Antrim, has told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the deal the prime minister is expected to share with Northern Ireland’s political parties in Belfast today must meet the seven conditions it laid down before it returns to power sharing.

“What we want to hear from him most importantly, is where the negotiations have reached in removing the automatic application of EU law to Northern Ireland without any democratic input from the representatives in Northern Ireland and without any ability to change those laws if they’re detrimental to Northern Ireland,” he said.

Sunak and Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris are meeting the politicians to discuss the contentious post-Brexit trading arrangements, with Sunak is set to join European leaders in Germany this weekend for the Munich Security Conference.

There is mounting speculation that a deal between the EU and UK could be unveiled early next week. However, Irish deputy premier Micheál Martin has cautioned that he believes there is a “distance to go yet” before an agreement between the UK and the EU is over the line.

The Commons is still in recess. I’m Tom Ambrose and I am covering the UK politics live blog while Andrew Sparrow is away.